Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Bottle: Poured a dark black color porter with a nice light brown foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of chocolate malt notes with light residual sugar notes. Taste is also dominated by very pleasant black chocolate notes with limited bitterness notes. Body has a nice creamy texture which is quite full for the style with good carbonation and no apparent alcohol. This beer is a very enjoyable example of the style.

Had the self-proclaimed "big bottle" after this example of a rare style hung out in the beer fridge for a few weeks. I have mixed feelings about really flowery turns of phrase but this was a breathtaking beer in the glass, pitch black almost all the way though except for a tinge of a ruby red halo at the very bottom. Wow. Ample rich tan foam completed the package. Everything I've read suggests that this is how a robust porter should look. Smells of milk chocolate, roasted barley, and dark fruits (raisins, dates, figs ... There are both sweet and rich notes present). Palate is weighted towards the dark fruit, plums with a decent dose of coffee and chocolate along with a rum-like sweetness. Floral aromatics lend a cigar-like effect and a little vanilla to boot. Alcohol is well-concealed, I feel ambushed as I type this because the silky smooth creamy body made this beer disappear faster than it probably should have on a Monday night. Less body than most stouts I've had and a crisp finish that reveals the faintest hint of pine and some charcoal, but notable for the relative lack of bitterness. A brew skewed towards the sweet plum malt and roasted flavors but with enough balance to keep things pleasing the whole way through. Track this one down if you are a dark beer fanatic ... Do so even if you aren't.

Poured into my sleeman mug, as it is the only glass I've got that holds the whole damn bottle. I've got proper dark beer glasses, but they're tiny little things.

It pours a pitch black colour with a super thick head that resembles a good cup of hot chocolate. The odour is quite complex - the prevailing smell is certainly coffee, but there is also a very pungent aroma that smells almost like lemon or some other kind of citrus. It's hard to pronounce what it is, but it's a lot more interesting than the usual coffee smell in a regular porter.

The taste is very smooth and refreshing, but with a load of rich flavour to boot. There is not a whole lot of carbonation at all, although I think that would interfere with the complex flavours in the beer. There's coffee flavour, sure, but, well... it sort of reminds me of those sour cream glazed timbits from Timmys. Maybe I'm alone on this one, but it's a damn good tasting porter.

The mouthfeel is simple, a little thick, but not overly thick. I'll admit I'm not a big porter drinker, but this is well done on all accounts. It is simple tasting, but with some exciting subtle notes. It's thick, but not insanely thick. It's bitter, but not "face cringe" bitter.

The colour of midnight oil with 2 inches of frothy head the drop to a slick but good lacking.

The enticing aroma of sweet dark chocolate and burnt roasted nuts.

Tastes like a big bit of bitter dark chocolate. A note of vanilla. Resolves to the flavour of chocolate cake with some sweetness. The hop bitterness and sourness integrated well with the taste of malt.

A chewy, slightly oily feel with a touch of tingle on the front of the tongue.

A - pitch black, one finger of dark brown head fizzled to a thin cover, not much in the way of lacingS - rich chocolate, candied fruits and butter toffee, roasty aroma in the background, definitely an enticing mixT - dark chocolate with roasted nuts, dark fruits with caramelized sugars, touch of earthy and leafy hops, well balanced with big rich flavoursM - medium body with a creamy start that turns to a dry cocoa feel with just mild touch of alcohol dryness, deceptively drinkableO - a great take on the style and a sneaky high ABV make this a must try, big flavour from another alley kat big bottle

I had a pint of this on-tap at the Hop-In Brew last night.Super dark, with a good head on it right after the pour but that quickly disappears.The taste was far above my expectation. It had a really nice sweetness as well as notes that I can't quite put my finger on. Vanilla? Licorice?Whatever; it was spectacular.If it hadn't have been clocking in at 8.3% I would have had two more pints of it, in quick order. The highlight of the night-- it even made the Darn Tartan/ Scotch ale seem bland, by comparison, and that was one I was raving about two weeks ago.

From a 650 ml brown bottle. Pours out a nearly opaque black hue with garnet cola-like highlights when held to direct light. Thick creamy beige head that settles to a thin cap.

Rounded notes of chocolate, coffee and some caramel emanate from the aroma, with some dark dried fruit in the background.

Sweet fig and date blended with coffee notes up front in the flavour, with an addition of caramel malt in the middle where things also start to get creamy sweet. Raisin sweetness and milk chocolate manifest on the finish, while the sweetness tapers off in the aftertaste with caramel and chocolate remaining, and further on things drying out with a cocoa presence.

Full-bodied mouthfeel, texture is smooth at times, thick and sticky at others, with moderate carbonation.

On the milder end of the style, yet very enjoyable and chock full of flavour, and a very decent interpretation of the style. In fact it succeeded in making me forget about hop bombs for the moment and hearken back to my malt-forward beer loving days and their own fine merits. This should be put into regular rotation as a seasonal in the future.

650ml bottle, the latest in the Big Bottle series - things, they be getting ever more punny up in the Alley Kat house, it would seem.

This beer pour a clear, very dark chestnut brown hue, with bright reddish highlights, and two fingers of tightly foamy, sort of bubbly tan head, which leaves a solid, if uneven wall of pock-marked concrete wall lace around the glass as it evenly and gently subsides.

The bubbles are present, but quite understated for the most part, the body on the lee side of medium weight, and fairly smooth, a slight metallic alcohol twinge doing only minor damage in that regard. It finishes moderately off-dry, the lingering black fruit, singed caramel, and alcohol continuing to carry the brunt of the load.

A straight-up sweet caramel and fruit malt bomb, subtly fueled by the well integrated big ABV, and underappreciated, I'm sure, workaday hops. Easy, and smoothly drinkable, this so-called "big" bottle disappears like a ship in the night.